Duchy of Durnholde
Present Governance The Duchy of Durnholde is convened by several structures of power. Stewarded by Duke Galmone Smith of Aurumsmark, conquested by Tyler Steele of Durnholde and symbolically and culturally dominated by Duchess Falcko Arturia of the First Duchy of Durnholde, previously deposed by Lord Steele. History The Duchy of Durnholde is a realm in south-central Continental Lordaeron established around the previous military keep and internment camp, Durnholde Keep, and including the land north of the road from Thoradin's Wall to Thondroril River. The land has a tumultuous history, having changed hands frequently in the past to the point that is commonly thought to be no man's land. The duchy was given to Falcko Arturia by House Lionblood when it was a part of the Commonwealth of Arathor. The duchy under Falcko enforced the Continental Lordaeron Non-Aggression Pact and was the primary enforcer of the Strahnbrad Compromise of 2804. After conflicts with the Arathorian government, the duchy dissolved its union with Stromgarde and formally seceded from the commonwealth. With the aid of houses from Alterac, Arathor, and Stormwind, Falcko oversaw the rebuilding of key buildings from Alterac Granite and remilitarized the land by making it a hub of the Ironcloak Vanguard. After a misunderstanding, Falcko and Alonsus II agreed that, due the the strategic importance of the duchy and the growing hostility between families in Alterac and Arathi, Durnholde should become the center of enforcers of the peace that the Archbishop arbitrated to the people, effectively making it a neutral, church-affilated buffer zone in the event of a civil war. However, as the presence of the Archbishop's enforcers waned, a forsaken-liberated human army marched upon Durnholde, in a time without its allies or resources, at the behest of the heir marriage, Ricktore Schroder and Tyler Steele. Without no one else to take up the position of Marshal, the Ironcloak Vanguard has hence forth been disbanded and Tyler Steele then ruled as a tyrant. The First Militant Uprising Ricktore and Tyler had only ruled for a year. In their one year, self-proclaimed Duke Steele had made industrial efforts against the rampant forsaken expansion and takeover in the Foothills. His egregious reign as the High Lord of Durnholde was not missed by his vassals, many of which outwardly opposed him. Most of which was the tyrant's father by-adoption, the bona fide lord and industrialist Lord Galmone of Nevahris. While every vassal lord of Durnholde east of the Chillwind River was quickly bested by Steele's rapid and sizeable force, he dare not cross the shallow waters—even though they were shallow enough for a horse's trot. Only a few miles across, Steele could see the plumes of smoke coming from Lord Galmone's war camps. The advancements of Steele's reign were used outwardly against him. Where Lord Galmone saw paved roads, he advanced cavalry. Where the soldiers refilled their canteens, the more seasoned commander's industrial army built dams. For even the immense wheat-based economy that the tyrant Steele had created had been burned into nothingness. Months passed, and as the forsaken receded from key mid-lands between the two armies, Lord Galmone launched his first offensive attack against Steele's men—it was in the darkness of night, and it was utter bloodshed. Guided by metal-wire strewn balls of petrol soaked hay, lit and catapulted at Steele's amateur river entrenchment, the cavalry of Nevahris was almost entirely unseen—only their thunderous galloping could be accounted for as their targets were illuminated for them. As the first line of cavalry lurched beyond the footwalls of the entrenchment, it could be said that more than 300 men were killed aiding the Tyranny of Durnholde. Confident of his soldiers' morale and cognizant of the loss of Steele's, Lord Galmone proceeded just beyond the river to replenish his military and wait for his comprehensive ground army to reach them as his limited but key naval fleet blockaded Durnholde from responders to Steele's bribery and calls for aid. Those two weeks within the walls of Durnholde proper were described as desolate, anarchal—as most of the constabulary surrounded Steele as he kept to his fortress and deliberated on an offensive push-back. As food was running low, Tyler opted to regimen the remaining food to the military and nobility, mass evacuating the lower class in a forced removal in the dead of night. The Filicide Catastrophe & End of the First Steele Reign Lord Galmone knew that his son was an accomplished soldier, but no general. He had been banking on his desire and necessity to meet Nevahris' soldiers in the open field before Galmone could reach Durnholde's walls. As the gates opened, and hundred poured out, the war horns of the dozens of scouts signaled their lord that a force was moving to meet them in battle. Battle-hardened and blood-sated, the soldiers under the capable commander were commanded and let into a forward march that was certain to overwhelm the enemy to the point of desertion and mass flight. Once again, Galmone's troops burst through the night and met the mass of almost 1,500 with the full weight and speed of his combined military. To his horror, his army was in fact charging the evicted citizenry of Durnholde. Although Galmone made an initial attempt to stir his troops away on horseback, he could see that the gravity of war was unstoppable. He resolved to press on, forcing the citizens to mob back into the walls and prevent the gates from being able to close. As the first cavalry troops of Nevahris cleared the outer walls, amidst the smoke and haze of war, they were faced with a remaining one thousand spread citizens and a completely surprised army. The siege itself had taken two days, seizing Durnholde district by district until the Tyrant-Lord himself was ejected from his chambers. Outraged, the young warlord challenged Lord Galmone to single combat, to which he was rejected, and forcibly banished from the Kingdom of Durnholde. A Reclaimed Durnholde & the Hillsbrad Confederacy Having deposed its tyrant, Galmone was in mixed review of its people. Fearing further chaos in the region and a disruption to his eventual evacuation of western Hillsbrad Foothills, then-Lord Galmone convened the Hillsbrad Confederacy, bound by the central laws written by the Nevahri lord, the Lawful Individuals Rights' Accord of the Hillsbrad Foothills . He was joined in leadership of Durnholde by Duchess Arturia, and together they orchestrated a powerful rejuvination of Durnholde's lands with the help of their Confederate counterpart in Alterac, Lady Zaria Blackmoore of the Citrine Eagles to convene as the first Masters of Confederate Hillsbrad. Category:Places Category:Realms Category:Realms of Stromgarde Category:Realms of Alterac Category:Realms of Lordaeron Category:Hillsbrad Foothills Locations